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Friday, March 29, 2024

Why Mondelez allows employees to work at home

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This company allows employees to work at home four days a month, allows women 120 days of maternity leave, provides pre-natal milk and extends health benefits to couples including those of the same gender.

 Mondelez Philippines human resource lead Shiela Jane Sta. Cruz-Pangilinan

Snack giant Mondelez Philippines has developed a fresh approach to getting the most from its human resources, creating an atmosphere of fulfillment both professionally and personally.

The company believes that moving forward into the changing times, organizations should also adapt to ways of how people should be working.

In embracing these changes, the company dared to introduce three life-changing policies on the pretext of being both open and inclusive, two of them a first in the entire Mondelez global conglomerate.

“We want to share this to the world. This is something that should not be contained within our company.  In fact, we hope this will create a new trend for all companies worldwide,” says Mondelez Philippines human resource lead Shiela Jane Sta. Cruz-Pangilinan.

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The company believes that with the current mix of the workforce, its open and inclusive policies are necessary to bring out the best from its employees.

Mondelez manpower is about 50 percent Generation X and 50 percent millennials.  Gen X adapts quite agreeably with the evolving changes in the workplace.

Pangilinan believes that the company should focus on capacity, capability and culture to aid the company in attracting talents and keeping them within the system.

Within a circle of 452 employees, Mondelez is trying to spin a web of care and joy within its workforce.

Not only is the company meeting the basic and mandatory provisions of law when it comes to employee benefits, it goes out of its way to go beyond what is basic.

For one, a certain percentage of company’s workforce are allowed to work from home, at the most, four days a month, the subject for approval of supervising seniors in the company.

Pangilinan says the new policy, which has been in practice in many Mondelez subsidiaries around the world for quite some time, has been beneficial for employees given the worsening traffic in Metro Manila.

“Working from home can turn out to be the best days to be productive and have the trust of the company. Working from home will give us the flexibility to work without stressing out or worrying about personal issues and at the end of the day, achieve our goals,” says Pangilinan, adding that the work from home policy also provides flexibility of time and travel.

In addition, married and expecting women are accorded the privilege of having 120 days of paid maternity leave which is twice the norm in the Philippines.

They are also allowed to charge pre- and post-natal consultations to the company’s healthcare provider, including select procedures.

There is also a provision for pre-natal milk that the company offers through a partnership on top of cash assistance that is payable without interest within 20 months.

“We believe in women leadership but at the end of the day, we’d like to have diversity and equal employment opportunity across all genders. This expanded maternity benefit is a first within our organization. We’re hoping it will set a trend for Mondelez globally,” Pangilinan says.

The company is a strong supporter of women empowerment and leadership of women. About 37 percent of the company’s employees are women.

Mondelez Philippines is also one of the first companies to officially include domestic partners in their employees’ health benefit through the company HMO, regardless of gender.

Married couples, those with live-in partners and the company’s lesbian and gay community co-habitating for at least five years are all beneficiaries of the open and inclusive health management benefit.

“We see no problem, especially for the third gender, to come out and avail of this benefit. All they need to have is a certification from their barangays that they are living together for five years,” Pangilinan says.

Despite the additional cost that is sure to impact on the company’s expenses, Mondelez is convinced that the new policies will also impact the company in a positive way.

“We need to pay back our employees, create a great place to work for them. Year-round, we find opportunities to reconnect and build community, the family. We try to leverage on our size, a small company and the breadth and skill of a global company. We call it glocal, maximizing the global lens at the same time implement the local opportunities we have,” Pangilinan says.

The newly expanded benefits provided a good leverage for the company in keeping skilled and trustworthy employees. It noticed a significant decrease in attrition rate from double-digit in 2017 down to a single digit in the first few months of 2018.

Further, “creating moments of joy”, is a corporate undertaking to keeping company people happy about their job and assures them that their family is also an extended family of the company.

“We believe that at Mondelez, there are always great leaders to create great teams. We also have the opportunity to develop the next generation of leaders. But, it is not all about work. We work hard but we play hard. We celebrate success and that’s how we live,” Pangilinan says.

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